TV presenter and former Formula 1 driver, Martin Brundle, is calling for a change in the rules governing on-track battles. The recent showdown between championship leader Max Verstappen and his closest rival, Lando Norris, has sparked debate. Brundle believes that the rules and their associated repercussions are due for an overhaul.
Verstappen and Norris provided plenty of excitement in the closing stages of the GP in Austin. The latter tried to overtake his Dutch rival for several laps, but Verstappen firmly held his ground. Norris managed to overtake the Red Bull driver once, but as he went off the track in the process, he was handed a time penalty. Social media is now teeming with ‘experts’ arguing whether Norris or Verstappen was at fault.
Martin Brundle’s Call for Change
Martin Brundle would like to change the rules to prevent such debates in the future. “We’ve already seen during the GP in Austria how a thin strip of gravel ensures that drivers stay within the lines,” he wrote in his column for Sky Sports. “Of course, it costs money to install and remove such strips, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s a small price to pay.”
‘Let Them Race’
“The layout of the circuits and the amount of space next to the track create these problems,” explained Brundle. “But the increasingly complex traffic rules fail to solve these problems. So, the rules simply need to be adjusted,” Brundle suggested. “I don’t know what happened to the ‘let them race’ approach, but it worked quite well.”
Finally, Brundle also shed some light on the incident with Max Verstappen and Norris. Being British, he gave the McLaren driver the benefit of the doubt. “George Russell received an unreasonable penalty earlier for pushing Valtteri Bottas too wide through the corner,” Brundle explained. “If Russell is reprimanded for this, shouldn’t Verstappen also have received a penalty?”
